Bad Boy Theory
by itsastra
Summary: Hermione was a Gryffindor. And Gryffindors never back out of dares. So, what happens when someone dares Hermione to play with Draco Malfoy's feelings just to prove her theory correct? Rated T just to be safe
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

As Hermione Granger was finishing a book in her usual library spot, she could see one of her fellow Gryffindors, Alicia Spinnet, run excitedly past Miss Pince, who glared with disdain, and toward Hermione herself. "Did you hear the news? Oh my goodness, did you Hermione?" Hermione's face flushed when the whole library turned to them.

In the midst of Alicia's hyperactivity, Miss Pince walked over to the two girls, with a look of irritation on her face. "Miss Spinnet." She began in her shrill voice that only added to her animosity. "In case you haven't noticed, some students are actually taking the time to learn. If you have no intentions of doing so, please leave."

Miss Pince walked away from the duo, and to her desk where she seemed to be writing a letter. "Snotty old hag. It's no wonder why nobody likes her." Alicia rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out to the grumpy librarian who didn't notice.

Alicia turned back to Hermione with a big grin. "So, anyways. Have you heard the news?"

Hermione shook her head.

"Tracey Davis and Draco Malfoy have broken up! Isn't it wonderful?" Alicia shrieked. Miss Pince shot them both a menacing glare. "That means he's single, Hermione! Can you believe it? How lucky a girl would be to get a taste of that bombshell."

Hermione shook her head again, this time with a smile on her face. "Alicia you sound like one of the girls who fawn over him whenever he walks past you. And he's a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake."

"A bad boy, Hermione! Every girl's dream guy. Wouldn't you agree?"

"No, not at all, because bad boys don't exist Alicia."

"What do you mean? Of course they do."

"No, they don't. Draco Malfoy is about as scary as Crookshanks. Underneath all that hate, he's probably a soft marshmallow-horrible tasting marshmallow, but a marshmallow nonetheless."

Alicia crossed her arms. "You just love stomping on my parade, don't you, Granger?" She said with a smirk, as an idea popped in her head. "Why don't you test your theory, Hermione?"

Hermione looked up at her friend incredulously. "E-excuse me?"

"You heard me. Test out your hypothesis. Show me that bad boys don't really exist."

Hermione shut her book and matched Alicia's unwavering stare of confidence. "And how do you suppose I do that? Who would be stupid and thick enough to take part in this experiment?"

"The first boy that walks through those doors." Alicia stuck her hand out for Hermione to shake, a gesture commonly used to ask another person if they had a deal. Hermione pondered on Alicia's words. She concluded that the boy who walked through the door would probably be someone like Cormac McLaggen, who Hermione found to be an easy test subject, as he already had an unhealthy obsession with Hermione.

She reassured herself again before shaking the older Gryffindor's hand. "Deal."

Just then, fate decided to join in on this little plot. In stepped Draco Malfoy himself, with his cronies Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, and Nott.

Hermione's eyes widened, then she turned to Alicia, who had a wicked smirk playing on her face. "Merlin." Alicia cackled.

What had Hermione gotten herself into?

 **Author's Note: Hiiiiii! This is my first ever story on this website. DO NOT BE ALARMED IF YOU SEE A SIMILAR STORY LIKE THIS ON WATTPAD. That is probably me posting that because I hadn't originally planned for this to be a fan fiction, but I found that Hermione and Draco perfectly fit the roles.** **Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you stick around for more!**

 **-signed, a**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Waking up on a Saturday morning made Hermione grin like a fool.

That is, until a certain Spinnet burst her bubble. "Hello Hermione. Ready for our training day?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Training?"

"You're playing the biggest jerk in Hogwarts; the biggest heartbreaker on campus, Hermione. Do you think he'd let you in that easily?" Hermione grew silent at Alicia's words. She knew her friend had a point.

With reluctance, she nodded. "I suppose you're right."

Alicia grinned like the Chesire Cat. "Let's go. We're off to find our first practice dummy."

The two Gryffindor girls arrived at the Great Hall, which was full of students having their breakfast. The older girl skimmed the crowd before her eyes landed on her prey.

"Come on." Alicia said to the girl standing beside her as they walked over to the Gryffindor table, which was right beside the Ravenclaw table.

When they sat down, Alicia gestured her head to the boy sitting parallel to them. Hermione recognized the dirty blonde hair belonged to Finn Phelps, a Ravenclaw who was in the same year level as Alicia was.

"Okay Hermione," Alicia said in a hushed tone. "There are four basic steps when wanting to snag a boy.

"One: Grab his attention. Find something to use to let his attention focus on you. Once his attention in on you, you've succeeded. You have a window of opportunity to take him

"Two: Start a conversation. Make it interesting, and by interesting, I mean about him. _Never_ talk about yourself. It'll make him think that you only needed his attention to boast your achievements to him. It's honestly unattractive and completely irritating.

"Three: Initiate the flirting—if it didn't already start. Twirl your hair, bite your lip, make eye contact—anything to make it seem like you're totally invested in him.

"Four: Make an excuse to leave. Remember the term that Muggles use? Playing hard to get? Do exactly that. Don't make yourself easily accessible. If he goes after you, that's perfect. Mission success.

"After that, it's a simple game of cat and mouse." Alicia shrugged.

Hermione furrowed her brows in confusion, trying to absorb all the things that she just said.

Eventually, Alicia caught on to Hermione's expression, and stood up. "Watch."

She walked away, near the door of the Great Hall and made her way back to Hermione. But instead of walking as confidently as she did before, she tripped and landed on the ground with a thud.

Immediately, Finn's head snapped to Alicia on the floor. He got up and walked over to her. "Are you okay?"

Alicia gulped and nodded with fake innocence in her smile. "Yes, thank you."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

She nodded again. "Really, I—" Hermione heard her groan in pain. "Alright I may have been lying."

Finn gave her the 'I-told-you-so' look and helped her sit down beside him.

As Hermione watched her 'mentor' breeze through talking to Finn. With almost every sentence, Alicia counted the steps in her hand, letting Hermione see.

Their conversation finally ended and Alicia walked back to the Great Hall's doors, nudging Hermione discreetly to come and follow her.

"Did you see that?" Alicia asked with a small giggle.

The younger brunette smiled. "Brilliant plan to snag his attention." Her smiled waned, and Alicia noticed. "But I don't know if I could do as well as you did."

"Just have faith Hermione. Now come on. It's your turn now."

"Alright, who are we trying this on?"

"Try? Oh no, this is the real deal, Hermione." Alicia smirked wickedly. "Let's go and find Draco Malfoy, shall we?"

 **Author's Note: This wasn't one of my favourite chapters. And sorry it came soooo late! But it's relatively long, so… Writer's block is the worst.**

 **Remember to leave a nice (please) comment!**

 _ **Addio, a**_


	3. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE

**NOT AN UPDATE!** JUST AN APOLOGY (and a thanks)

I'm so sorry for leaving this story hanging! School's been crazy busy and I hadn't had time to write!

Thank you all for reading and following and favoriting and stuff. I felt SO guilty after seeing how many people liked it.

NONETHELESS, I WILL BE CONTINUING THE STORY (yay)! The next chapter will be up either tomorrow or just a bit later (ooo).

 _ **a thousand hugs and kisses and thanks,**_

 _ **xx a**_


	4. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

Turns out, trying to find Draco Malfoy in the giant school that is Hogwarts is like trying to catch a snitch in the middle of a rainstorm, Hermione thought. It was nearly impossible to catch up to him and his cronies, but when she finally did, tall of them–Malfoy, Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle–in the Viaduct.

It took Hermione a minute or _five_ to compose herself and recall Alicia's instructions to her in the Great Hall.

 _Step One: Grab his attention._

 _You can do this, Granger._ She pushed herself off of her position on the wall, straightening her back and ironing out the creases in her skirt.

Right before she sent Hermione to start the experiment, Alicia had fixed the girl up a bit by applying a touch of lip gloss, blush, and mascara, and pulling Hermione's skirt up to show off her perfectly shaped legs.

"Such a waste for them to be hidden!" Alicia had told the younger Gryffindor, to which she replied with a huff of annoyance. In reality, Hermione blamed herself more for partaking in this silly experiment in the first place.

Her walk filled with confidence as she strode over to Malfoy's group of friends. "Ahem." She cleared her throat loudly, causing the Slytherins to send her nasty looks. "Malfoy, I have to speak to you about. Alone."

This made Draco's eyes spark with curiosity. He jerked his head to the end of the Viaduct, signaling his friends to go away. They got up, irritated, and walked to where Draco had gestured to, but not before Pansy shoved Hermione harshly then rejoined Crabbe, and Goyle. She admitted it hurt, but not aloud. "Can't blame Parkinson for doing that." He told Hermione, repositioning himself on the wooded rails. "After all, she isn't the only one with a distaste for mudbloods _and_ Gryffindors." His crude insults almost made Hermione want to punch him. _Again_. "Anyways, you've got my time and attention, Granger. Use it wisely."

 _Step One, complete. Step Two: Start a conversation. Don't talk too much about yourself, talk more about him to boost his ego._

"I guess that's true." Hermione sighed, taking place beside Draco, resting herself on the wooden support. He gave her an odd look, but she chose to ignore it. "You can't imagine how hard it is to find you, Malfoy. You're literally a snitch, do you know that?"

She tried to ignore the way Draco's stormy gray eyes focused solely on her, like she was some puzzle that he was trying to figure out. She tried to ignore the clammy and sweaty feeling on her palms. She tried to ignore how uncomfortable his gaze made her, and how it made her legs feel like jelly.

"What do you want, Granger?" He asked in a low, husky voice that made Hermione's stomach churn.

"Uh, I just wanted to, uh, get help for P-Professor Snape's exam tomorrow. I-I mean, you're his favorite for a reason, right? So, uh, about the–"

The words were lost in Hermione's throat when she saw Malfoy's hand reach over to the side of her face and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The contact Malfoy's hand made with the side of her cheek made Hermione shudder. It was cold, but it felt like a complimentary contrast to the warmth of her body.

He shifted his body closer to face her and he leaned and whispered in her ear. "Cut the codswallop, Granger. We both know you're the best when it comes to acing exams, even if they are from Snape's class. So tell me, what are you really here for?"

 _Oh Merlin, what do I do now?_

"I-I..." Hermione had no response. She didn't think he would be so smart.

His mouth curled into a wicked smirk. "I think I know what it is."

Her brown eyes widened in horror. Okay, she admitted he was smart, but now, she may think he's a genius. "I-it's n-not what you t-think, Malfoy."

"Oh, I think it is, Granger." He leaned in closer, so close, in fact, that she could feel his breath on her face. "Admit it. You like me, don't you?"

 _The nerve of this little wretched rodent!_ Well, she had to say, it was better he think this than actually find out Hermione's true intentions. She decided to play along. "I-I guess." She muttered. The words felt foul on her lips. Her? Liking Malfoy? Never in a million eons.

His eyes trailed over her whole body, taking in her appearance and figure. She swore she was about to be sick. "I have to say. You aren't normally the type of girl Malays go for, but, uh," His stormy eyes locked back in with her chocolate brown ones. "You'd be fun to play with, I reckon."

 _Fun to play with?_ _I'd rather throw myself off of this Viaduct, or let_ _Fluffy slobber his tongue all over me than be Malfoy's play-thing!_

Hermione opened her mouth to retort, but she was caught off guard when he leaned in to place a light kiss on her cheek. Jolts were coursing through her body from the contact with Malfoy, making Hermione's knees go weak. She swore, she was about to faint, then and there.

"See you soon, Granger." Malfoy whispered in her ear one more time before turning in the direction of where his cronies had exited and walking, still with the same confident and assertive walk she'd noticed since she first saw him.

The place where his lip just were still felt like it was on fire, and placing a hand over it didn't help at all. Still, Malfoy's smirk, however sadistic or genuine, will never be erased from her memory, and not even and _Obliviate_ could make her forget.

* * *

 **A/N: FINALLY! AN UPDATE, AS PROMISED! I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter and it could have gone so many other ways, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, I guess.**

 **As usual, thank you for reading, you lovely people!**

 _ **a thousand hugs and kisses,**_

 ** _astra xx_**


End file.
